The most interesting of the "Nickleby" plates are undoubtedly those depicting scenes at Dotheboys Hall, that representing Squeers at the Saracen's Head containing the most familiar presentment of its amiable proprietor. Thus, as he stood mending his pen, the novelist and artist saw the living prototype, and had taken mental notes of the odd figure, who, as will presently be related, was among the several schoolmasters they interviewed.[23]
It was the novelist's intention to expose in this story the terrible abuses practised in the cheap boarding-schools of Yorkshire, and, in order that he might realise their true character, he determined to investigate for himself the real facts as to the condition of those notorious seminaries. Accordingly, at the end of January 1838, he and "Phiz" started on this memorable journey, in bitterly cold weather, and, visiting several schools in the locality, they came into direct contact with the proprietors. One of these was William Shaw, the identical schoolmaster who, some years previously, had been heavily fined for what was represented at the trial as gross maltreatment of his pupils. According to the following entry in the novelist's private diary (under date February 2, 1838), there can be no doubt that he had this individual principally in his mind when delineating the infamous Squeers:—"Mem.—Shaw, the schoolmaster we saw to-day, is the man in whose school several boys went blind some time since from gross neglect. The case was tried, and the verdict went against him. It must have been between 1823 and 1826. Look this out in the newspapers." Mr. Lloyd, a well-known Glasgow comedian, who spent twelve months in Shaw's school at Bowes, Yorkshire, afterwards testified to the truth of the outward appearance of the man as described by Dickens and portrayed by the artist in the pages of the novel, "allowing, of course, for both being greatly exaggerated. A sharp, thin, upright little man, with a slight scale covering the pupil of one of his eyes. Yes, there he stands, with his Wellington boots and short black trousers, not originally cut too short, but from a habit he had of sitting with one knee over the other, and the trousers being tight, they would get 'rucked' half-way up the boots. Then, the clean white vest, swallow-tailed black coat, white necktie, silver-mounted spectacles, close-cut iron-grey hair, high-crowned hat worn slightly at the back of his head—and there you have the man." It certainly seems remarkable that Mr. Lloyd and others who knew Shaw recollect him as a most worthy and kind-hearted gentleman, but this perhaps is explained by certain facts concerning him and his school that were published in the Athenæum, February 1894, together with a commentary upon a reprint of the trial in which he was the defendant.
It is a curious fact that several Yorkshire schoolmasters actually claimed to be the prototype of Squeers; indeed, a member of the fraternity (probably Shaw himself) declared that he remembered being waited on by two gentlemen, one of whom held him in conversation while the other took his likeness; "and although" (says the author in his preface to the story) "Mr. Squeers has but one eye, and he has two, and the published sketch does not resemble him (whoever he may be) in any other respect, still he and all his friends know at once for whom it is meant, because the character is so like him." I think there can be no doubt that both Dickens and "Phiz," when delineating Squeers, reproduced too closely the idiosyncrasies of one individual, and that the author's description, as well as the artist's presentment, bore so obvious a likeness to Shaw, that he became the scapegoat for others worse than himself, and suffered accordingly.
Plate XXXII
"THE DOMBEY FAMILY"
Facsimile of the First Study for the Etching by
H. K. BROWNE ("Phiz")
The "Query" written beneath the Drawing is in the autograph of the Artist. It was addressed to Dickens, and reads as follows:—"Qy. Whether 'twere better to have him standing thus, stiff as a poker, with a kind of side glance at his daughter,—or sitting, as in the other?" The Etching differs considerably from the Drawing.
Lent by Mr. J. F. Dexter.
In some of the etchings may be discovered slight incongruities (as, for example, in the first plate, where Ralph Nickleby's hat is too small for his head), while in others there is a palpable touch of exaggeration. In the illustration, "The Country Manager Rehearses a Combat," the artist has omitted to introduce the figure of the landlord who ushered into the managerial presence Nicholas and Smike, and the broad-swords should have been basket-hilted weapons. In the etching, where Nicholas instructs Smike in the art of acting, Nicholas wears the rapier on the wrong side, this oversight doubtless resulting from the non-reversal of the design upon the plate. The "Nickleby" illustrations are, as a whole, very successful; in many instances the expressions are capitally rendered, although it is to be regretted that the artist did but scant justice to the physical attractions of Kate Nickleby and Madeline Bray.
There were sixty-three quarto plates etched for the thirty-nine illustrations in the story, each plate carrying two designs; some of these were etched three times, while in seven instances the quarto plate was reproduced no less than four times. In none of these duplicated plates will be found such marked variations in detail as may be noted in the replicas of the "Pickwick" designs, so that the collector need only seek for well-printed impressions.[24]